Klarinet Archive - Posting 000577.txt from 2006/03

From: "Joseph H. Fasel" <jhf@-----.gov>
Subj: Re: [kl] Transposed Parts
Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2006 12:07:47 -0500

I'm having trouble remembering exactly what the pieces were, but I seem
to recall playing some Strauss stuff in which the composer had
perversely called for a specific clarinet in an unfriendly key.

--Joe

On Mon, 2006-03-27 at 09:27, Don Yungkurth wrote:
> Kevin Fay quotes Roger Hewitt:
>
> <<<Someone else pointed to the fact that a C clarinet part is usually for
> a period instrument anyway and this will have much more influence on
> tone colour than a modern Boehm system "standard" C clarinet. And most
> 18th century composer would much preferred to use Modern violins,
> pianos, valve horns, if only they could have!>>>
>
> Kevin responded:
>
> >>>I thought similarly to this - before I performed a couple of *very* late
> Richard Strauss works, the "Happy Workshop" and the "Invalid's Workshop."
> Both fantastic works.
>
> The "Happy Workshop" is scored for clarinet in C, two in Bb, basset horn (in
> F) and bass. If you've performed it, it's very, very, very clear that he
> knew *exactly* what he was doing in scoring for the clarinets in the various
> keys.
>
> (................ cut..............)
>
> . . . but Bb and A, while having different timbres, aren't all that
> different. Not so a C - it's an entirely different sound.
>
> Composers up through Beethoven may have put clarinets in a specific key to
> follow a convention. After the instrument because fully chromatic, though,
> I have to think that they knew what they were doing. Certainly Strauss,
> Mahler and Dvorak.>>>
>
> I think Kevin is right on the money here and the Strauss works he mentions
> are from 1943-45!
>
> I've posted the following quote before, but I think it is worth another
> hearing considering the current discussions. It is from Oskar Kroll's book
> "The Clarinet", and reports some very strong feelings of Richard Strauss
> about using the instruments he specifies:
>
> >>> Before the first performance of "Der Rosenkavalier", Richard Strauss
> >>> wrote a letter to the conductor, Ernst von Schuch, in which he said:
>
> "The C clarinets are indispensable, urge you to get some. Transposition
> impossible."
>
> But the instruments specifically purchased were never used again because the
> players preferred their Bb clarinets. Strauss was furious and wrote quite a
> strong letter to the orchestra management in Dresden which "they wouldn't
> have liked at all" (Kunitz). Subsequently Strauss repeatedly specified the
> C clarinet (Die Frau ohne Schatten, Die Agyptische Helena, Arabella,
> Friedenstag, Daphne, Die Lebe der Danae, Capriccio). Where C instruments
> are available (good ones!) they should certainly be used. Mahler also
> deliberately specified the C clarinet.<<<
>
> These Strauss works are all from the 20th century
>
> We are currently rehearsing an aria from "I Capuleti e i Montacchi" by
> Bellini (1830). The clarinet parts are for C clarinet in two flats. If
> transposed to play on the Bb clarinet, the parts would be in the key of C.
> It is difficult to imagine that Bellini would have specified the C clarinet
> unless he wanted the characteristic sound of that instrument.
--
Joseph H. Fasel, Ph.D. email: jhf@-----.gov
Systems Planning and Analysis phone: +1 505 667 7158
University of California fax: +1 505 667 2960
Los Alamos National Laboratory D-2 MS F609; Los Alamos, NM 87545

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